Events Arnab Chakrabarty and Sanju Sahai: An Evening of North Indian Classical Music

Arnab Chakrabarty and Sanju Sahai will perform a concert of North Indian classical music.The program will feature performances of ragas unique to the Indian subcontinent, with roots dating back hundreds of years. A raga is a matrix of melodic possibilities based on a distinct set of notes governed by a well-defined syntax. Recombination of melodic matter takes place in real time to compose fresh ideas that Hindustani musicians think of as improvisation.The meter-bound part of the melodic matter is temporally articulated within a cyclical framework known as tala. Talas are cycles that range from four to 108 beats in length, though the most commonly performed talas are between six and 16 beats.Chakrabarty will play the sarod, a long-necked, fretless, plucked lute. He is primarily a proponent of the Shahjahanpur gharana, or school, but his style has also been influenced by many other luminaries of North Indian classical music. He teaches and performs internationally.Sahai will accompany on the tabla, a pair of small, tuned, hand drums. He is a ninth-generation maestro of the Benares gharana. He is an accomplished soloist and accompanist, and has performed around the world.